How do you Defragment a computer?

[higgeo]

Hi. I would like to make make my computer run faster. I have some questions. please take a look.

Will a defrag make my computer run faster?

Is it reiable?

Are there any problems?

How do i Defrag my computer?

Will it get rid of my files on my hard drive?

What does a defrag do?

Please help!!
Thank you.

 

[kimsland]

Hi. I would like to make make my computer run faster. I have some questions. please take a look.

Will a defrag make my computer run faster?
Yes,(not your computer itself-the file system and data accessing) if the files are very fragmented

Is it reiable?
Yes. But if your drive is faulty, or showing signs of error, your HardDrive may fail under the strain

Are there any problems?
No, other than the above. Also in some cases it can take hours to complete
Also you need 15% free space minimum, for it to work

How do i Defrag my computer?
Start-->Run-->dfrg.msc

Will it get rid of my files on my hard drive?
No (except in the case of a faulty HardDrive mentioned earlier)

What does a defrag do?
It puts all files in the right order, and removes gaps between them
ie If you Opened Word for instance, The MS Word program partly may be at the start of the HardDrive, and partly may be at the end of the HardDrive

Please help!!
Done
Thank you.

Thanks

 

[jay1648]

Kimsland answered the questions above very well. I would suggest you must degrag your system atleast once in a while.

 

[krait]

low space defrag

Just a minor note; these days, the fully automatic defragmenters can defrag in low space conditions..even less than 5%, depending on the actual size of the fragmented files and actual available drive space.

I have defragged a heavily fragmented volume with thousands of ~20MB files (RAW image files) when available free space was only 6%. I used a commercial (paid) fully automatic defragmenter for this though; the windows defragger still needs 15% minimum and takes forever to run.

I like the auto defraggers over manual/scheduled defraggers because they are the easiest to use (have to do nothing after installing lol) and the most efficient in tackling fragmentation.

 

[zipperman]

Yes at least once a month,but delete all unnecessary files first,with Disk Cleanup.
It removes unused files.
Quote : What does a defrag do?
It mainly creates more HD space.It does not delete files.
Every 3 or 4 do a chkdsk first.
Do you know where to run it from ?

 

[kimsland]

Actually good point zipperman.

Clean out all the temp files first.
I use CCleaner, or download here Directly

Also it can't create more space on a HardDrive exactly (sorry to be picky)
Because the HardDrive physical size remains the same
Sorry I had to write that, because once I wrote that time will go faster in a report, and I was told that time can't go faster, but the job can be completed more quickly (it annoyed the hell out of me!, but I understand it)

Also just as a mention. Vista OS has been set up to automatically Defrag as a task, on default install. Not sure if that's ideal, but basically no need to Defrag Vista, unless you remove this task.

 

[higgeo]

yay. thanks for your help. I will clean up my drive by uninstaling programs and tep files and then defrag my computer. thanks for your help.

 

[zipperman]

Kimsland is right so i just want to add that it is a necessary operation as you
can see the fragments are defraged and gone for faster performance.